Research progress on wall sticking of gelled crude oil at low-temperature transportation

With the development of domestic petroleum exploitation, the water cut of produced liquid is up to 70%-90%, and the energy consumption of gathering and transportation in oilfields is greatly increased, which makes low-temperature transportation process widely used. However, a series of flow assurance problems caused by the wall sticking of gelled crude oil have attracted extensive attention of researchers at home and abroad. This paper mainly expounds the research progress of wall sticking at home and abroad, summarizes and analyses the influencing factors and related research results of wall sticking law at present, introduces the main experimental equipment and research methods of wall sticking law, and summarizes the experimental results of domestic and foreign scholars. Based on the above research results, the macro-rule of wall sticking, the influence of physical properties and composition of crude oil and the influence of gelled crude oil are summarized, and wall sticking are deemed the result of the combined action of kinetics and thermodynamics. In particular, the discriminant method and empirical regression formula for wall sticking temperature are put forward. Finally, suggestions and directions for further research on wall sticking are given. This will be of great significance to alleviate and control the wall sticking problem of gelled crude oil and ensure the safe operation of pipelines in the future. © 2020, Chemical Industry Press. All right reserved.